By Revatha S. Silva
Are the players and coaches, who do the same crime, treated differently by the authorities?
Now the predicament that the Sri Lanka Cricket board and its television rights holder Sony TV have faced is overwhelming. They are to have the Indian white-ball series undergo from next Sunday (18) in an extremely fragile situation amid Covid-19 pandemic realities. Fortunately for everyone, none of the other members of the Sri Lanka main squad and their back-up squad had contracted the virus, according to reports last afternoon.
Yet, last week, two members of the Sri Lanka coaching staff, Grant Flower andShirantha Niroshan, got infected ringing alarm bells. So was a player in the second squad, Sandun Weerakkody.
The third back-up squad, based in Dambulla, has apparently missed getting infected with the dangerous virus only by a whisker, it is understood.
Had this third back-up squad in Dambulla too is to be breached, that would effectively be the end of the story. Bye, bye India, whether you are the first-string or second string, or a bow-string, for that matter!
Why all this trouble?
The evident recklessness of the Sri Lanka support staff, including Flower, who has reportedly violated the stipulated bio-security protocols in England, and apparently in Sri Lanka as well, after their return from England.
Three players, Dhanushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, and Niroshan Dickwella, are now serving a suspension for committing the same mistake: breaching the bio-security protocol. They might well be ending up having a one-year ban from all cricket for that. But what is the punishment that is to be given to for Flower and co for making the same, costly blunder?
Look at the following sequence of events:
* The local coaches have allegedly mingled with their England counterparts during the last match of the series in Bristol on Sunday (4).
* Then at least seven members of the England squad were reported to have contracted the coronavirus on Monday (5).
* Sri Lanka returned home on Tuesday (6).
* Grant Flower’s positive test result was out on Thursday (8).
* The team’s Computer Analyst Shirantha Niroshan too was tested positive on Friday (9).
* Sandun Weerakkody of the Sri Lanka back-up side in Colombo tested positive on Saturday (10).
“This is nothing but reckless behaviour. The authorities are spending massive amounts of money to maintain a bio bubble because they badly want the series to go on uninterrupted. So, allowing them (the coaches) to go scot free, without any punishment, after all such irresponsible behaviour is unacceptable,” a former veteran SLC official told the Morning Sports.
He added: “It is completely a different treatment that those three players have had to face. What they did was supposed to be the similar misconduct.”
Following Weerakkody’s positive test, Asela Gunaratne, Chathuranga de Silva, Ashan Priyanjan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and Angelo Perera too had to be isolated as his immediate contacts.
“Over a dozen of young hopefuls are now likely to miss a wonderful opportunity to play against a young Indian side, solely due to this reckless behaviour,” the above source further added.
The Sri Lanka coaches had been seen in restaurants in England having meals together with their visitors. There had been occurrences reportedly where they had allowed other “quarantining persons” inside their hotel rooms.
They had not clearly followed the Standard Operating Procedures or SOPs that they are bound to follow during the pandemic, inside a bio-bubble, like wearing masks and keeping social distancing at risk situation.
This arbitrarily conduct has almost cost Sri Lanka her the most significant and the most lucrative series, both cricket-wise and income-wise.
“Flower refused to be vaccinated during the general vaccination process for the team because he said he wanted only one brand (Pfyzer) to be administered to him,” Prof. Arjuna de Silva told Derana TV last week. This too is going to indicates that the Batting Coach had moved about even while neglecting the basic health protocol.
It is interesting to see whether the new ‘elderly’ wrongdoers are too getting similar match bans and fines like the ‘three prodigal sons’, who are now facing music for their misdemeanour.